When it comes to the subsidies, why aren't the insurance companies offering any discounts? They're the ones charging life and limb for coverage (and too often, not actually covering what they say).
There's a reason why Luigi did what he did, that's all I'm going to say.
As for the shutdown, it's not particularly meaningful without a fixed debt ceiling, which we're not there yet as far as I understand it. Shutdown only affects the discretionary spending, which is a small portion of the budget. The ceiling is necessary to stop the spending that is out of control. We have to go over the fiscal cliff if we have any chance of bringing the budget back into sanity.